


Interlude - Never

by The_KLF



Category: Castle
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Castle Ficathon 2014, Gen, The Light of the Moon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 14:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2113185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_KLF/pseuds/The_KLF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First Interlude in the Light of the Moon series. Alexis meets Grace for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interlude - Never

The first time Alexis saw her sister was when Kate emailed her a couple of scans of images from the ultrasound. It wasn’t particularly obvious what she was looking at, and she had felt bad for having to ask her to point out which way around the baby was in the picture. The worst thing was the way conflicting emotions were running through her mind.

She was excited to finally have a sibling, disappointed that it had taken so long, guilty for feeling disappointed, happy that her dad had finally found someone he truly cared about who would stick around to bring this baby up in a more cohesive family unit than she had ever had. 

Angry at herself for being a tiny bit jealous. 

Alberto noticed, of course. The sweet man of her placement family seemed to notice everything about her, and was getting unnervingly good at reading her moods. Somehow it never strayed over into being creepy, and though she teased him about it he would just give her a knowing smile before changing the subject. 

Often, that meant talking about how things were going back in New York. “Alexis, are you ready to be home?” he asked a couple of days before she was due to be flying home.

He was lounging in the chair by the little desk in her room as she tidied her things and packed some non-essentials into her suitcase. She shrugged, watching his hands fiddle with a pen from beneath her bangs as she leaned over the case, his movements betraying his attempt at casual body language. He was nervous.

“I don’t know. I can’t wait to see my Dad again. Grams and Kate too, but…” She straightened up and looked over at him. “I kinda don’t want to leave you guys behind either.” She watched him crease his eyebrows and sigh before he stood and crossed the room to stand beside her.

She felt the ghost of his fingers whisper against her own and she turned her head to look up into his eyes. “Alexis, I d-…” His deep, brown eyes closed for a second longer than a blink and then his fingers slipped from her grasp. “We don’t want you to go, but your home is there, and your family and friends, and your school. Mama keeps in touch with everyone who has stayed with her to work at CAIS, and Ana will probably email you every day unless you tell her to stop.” He gave her a faint smile.

“And you?” she asked, unable to hide the tremor in her voice. He broke eye contact and she knew his answer before he even said it.

“I’m afraid I’m a poor correspondent.”

Alexis felt the butterflies in her stomach protest but she grabbed his hand, interlocking her slim fingers with his, and reached up on her tiptoes as he turned to her in surprise. She pressed her insistent lips to his shocked ones but retreated when he didn’t respond. The next she knew he was disentangling his hand from hers and almost running out of the room, a shameful, hurried apology thrown over his shoulder as he fled.

* * *

The next semester of college flew by, as Alexis threw herself into studying. By the time the Christmas vacation arrived, her friends were teasing that she’d left her heart behind in Mexico, so she acquiesced to being set up on a blind date now that classes had just about finished for the holidays. She and Robert had gone for dinner at a restaurant that was only a couple of blocks away from the loft and the decision to go back there afterwards, instead of trekking all the way back to the dorms, was a no-brainer.

She slid her key into the lock of the front door, not expecting anyone to be awake, startling when her gaze registered her dad’s girlfriend sitting on the couch under a cozy blanket with her feet up. “Kate! It’s nearly two in the morning, I thought you’d be asleep.”

Kate looked up from the spread of the wedding magazine resting on her swollen belly and gave Alexis a smile as she tiptoed through the front door of the loft. “Hey Sweetie. Baby Castle had other ideas on that subject…” Alexis scrunched her face in sympathy as she walked over to the couch.

“Do you want anything? Water? Snack?”

“Um… both, please? I think there’re some mango chunks in the fridge, that would be great. Then we can dissect your date with Robert…” Alexis groaned as she walked to the other side of the great room.

When Alexis returned from the kitchen with their midnight feast, she heard a tiny growl from Kate before she saw her throw the magazine onto the top of the mound on the coffee table.

“That bad, huh?” Rick’s voice carried across the space as he stumbled through from the bedroom, rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“Sorry Dad, I tried to close the cupboards quietly.” He dropped a kiss onto his daughter’s hair before he moved to lift Kate’s feet into his lap as he sat down.

“Not you, Pumpkin, I got cold without my hot water bottle.” He threw Kate a sleepy lopsided grin, and Alexis tried to hide her smile. Sometimes her dad just couldn’t hide how much he loved his detective. “So, what’s going on with my girls tonight?” Kate looked over to Alexis and she took her cue.

“My date was awful.”

“Oh no…” the adults answered in unison. 

“Yeah. He was late to begin with. Then there was an awkward cab ride from campus to the restaurant where we sat about as far away from each other as possible. Then when we got there he somehow managed to step on my toe, I still have no idea how. We managed some conversation, but what there was of it was awful, then, in what I thought would be the climax of the evening, he made a huge fuss over not splitting the bill, insisted he would pay for it all…” She paused dramatically for the big finale. “And then his card was declined so I had to fork out for it all anyway.” 

Alexis looked up from pushing a chunk of mango around with her fork to find both adults bright red and trying not to laugh, but when Kate snorted, all hell broke loose. 

“Did you put it on my card, Pumpkin?” Her dad frowned when she shook her head. “Why not?”

“Because I wanted to prove a point.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t the most expensive meal I’ve paid for, Dad, don’t worry, and he’ll have trouble living it down once I’ve told Stacey in the corridor across from mine. She doesn’t seem to be able to keep her mouth shut... Anyway, what about you guys? How was your evening?”

“Oh, quiet,” Kate replied, quickly. Rick rolled his eyes, and Alexis giggled at the incredibly Beckett mannerism.

“Sure, you keep telling me that if you want, Kate. Dad? Spill.”

“Hey!” Kate interjected, and Rick sniggered before explaining what had happened.

“We had a nice evening in, perusing so many wedding magazines that Kate almost had a nervous breakdown.”

“It’s the hormones! Just the hormones, okay?”

Alexis shook her head indulgently, pursing her lips, knowing better than to interrupt. Sure enough, her dad refused to back down.

“It’s not, you just want to wait till after the baby is born to get married because you think you look fat.” He shifted himself around so he could look at her without turning his neck, and Alexis was fine with her presence being forgotten for a moment. “Isn’t that right?” 

She watched Kate try to object, but as she opened and closed her mouth she failed to form a coherent sentence and settled for narrowing her eyes at him. 

“Hmm, that’s what I thought. Well, I have news for you, Katherine Beckett-almost-Castle-except-at-work: you have never been more beautiful to me than when you are carrying our baby. With one exception…”

He started to massage her feet and Alexis knew he was waiting for Kate to cave. She did so with a frustrated huff. “Fine. Tell me when I was more beautiful.”

He waited a moment longer for her to meet his eyes. “When I woke up in Mexico and you weren’t a dream.” 

There was a beat of silence before Kate tugged the foot he was massaging and held her arms out, wiggling her fingers at Rick. He moved her feet and shifted along to perch by her hip and with some effort she pushed herself to sit up and threw her arms around his neck as he braced one arm around her back and spread the palm of his other hand over her bump. Alexis looked on fondly, her eyes beginning to get misty, when an idea popped into her head.

“Hey… how about this as a compromise…” Rick and Kate broke apart a little to look over at her from their embrace. “Throw these magazines in the recycling tonight. Dad, you go to City Hall first thing in the morning and get a copy of your marriage licence done, then the day after you can go and take a ticket and just get married. I’ve got the rings upstairs in my bedside drawer still, and we’ll get your dad, Kate. And Grams will be there with bells on, you know she will. Ask Lanie, Ryan and Esposito to take their lunch breaks when you know your number’s up next, if they don’t have the day off already. Then just do it. We can spend all the wedding budget on ordering in from Le Cirque for everyone.”

She tried hard not to laugh at the gaping fish sitting opposite her, and her dad was about to recover when she remembered something else. “Oh, and maybe tell Captain Gates beforehand. Probably best not to give her a heart attack.”

Kate barked a laugh. “Get over here, so I can hug you too.” Alexis grinned and jumped up from the couch. Rick patted his knees and she perched there, an arm around his shoulder and an arm around Kate’s, making a little circle of happiness.

“Now what on earth is going on down here?!” cried Martha as she reached the bottom of the stairs, coming over to cradle a hand to the back of her son’s head in a motherly caress. He beamed up at her, his smile all teeth and crinkled eyes and pure joy.

“Alexis had the most awesome idea, ever.”

* * *

She checked the scribbled writing on the piece of paper in her hand against the room number beside the door before putting the note away in her pocket and moving to peek through the gap. Through the slightly ajar door she watched the three occupants as they went about their morning. The two females in the room were on the over-sized maternity bed, while the male flitted about in a state of heightened excitement.

Alexis felt a tiny pang of jealousy – an emotion she had thought was long gone – as he moved to press a kiss to the baby’s forehead, and she couldn’t help the wistful smile that grew on her face as she observed her dad. And his wife. And the newest addition to their family: her sister. Well, half-sister. But that was still more of a sister than she’d had before.

Her sister.

Twenty. At the age of twenty she had become a big sister. She’d given up that dream at least twelve years ago, not counting its short-lived revival around the time Gina was welcomed into the family. But when Kate had come into the picture as someone who really was going to stick around, she had started to entertain it again.

And now their family – her family – was waiting for her to arrive to celebrate the new arrival together on the first day of the New Year, with the baby not even a whole day old.

With a deep breath, she tapped on the door, causing it to open a little further, and her dad’s attention whipped from one daughter to the other.

“Hey, Pumpkin! Hi!” 

Rick rushed over from Kate’s side to envelop his elder daughter in a massive hug. Alexis held the hand holding the flowers away from her to stop him crushing the small and delicate bouquet she’d bought on her way to the hospital that morning, a mixture of lily of the valley, yellow honeysuckle, and sprigs of what the florist had told her was called fibre optic grass.

“Hi, Dad! Hi Kate!” She pushed the flowers into his arms and he scooped them up with a grin, barely even looking at them as he moved into the en suite bathroom. 

“I’ll put these in a vase, don’t hand Grace over until I get the video camera!”

Alexis smirked at Kate’s eye roll. “He’s been hovering all morning. Why did I never notice how bossy he gets when he’s excited?” 

“All morning? It’s barely ten am!” Alexis perched on the end of the bed and regarded her step-mother – a term she hated in general, even when applied to Kate, who was nothing like any step-mother she had ever met. Kate looked exhausted but radiant, as if she couldn’t stop smiling.

“Ten? Really? We didn’t get much sleep… you dad has barely stopped chattering away, it’s been so… normal. And also totally not, with this little one calling the shots.” She smiled wide as Castle returned, put the flowers down in pride of place on the bedside table and rifled through his bag until he found his digi-cam, opening the screen and flicking a button so the red ‘recording’ light came on.

“Okay, time for Pumpkin and Poppet to meet properly!”

Her eyebrow flicked up. “Really, Dad? That’s what you’re going with?” Her words stopped him in his tracks and his face fell.

“What’s wrong with calling her ‘Poppet’?”

Alexis shrugged, waving her hand to help her think of the words, “It’s just so… old sounding.”

“Probably because it’s of British etymological descent,” he replied, nodding his understanding of her objection. She didn’t let him take the victory for long, however.

“But, really?”

Alexis managed to not laugh when he looked like he was about to growl. 

“Yes! Okay? Yes. It suits her. You’ll see.”

Kate finally dragged her eyes from Grace, who was sleeping peacefully throughout the whole debate. “I think it’s sweet, if that’s any consolation.”

“Thank you, Kate, light of my life.”

He caught both their eye rolls on camera.

“Come on, Alexis, get comfy just here and I’ll pass Grace to you.” Kate patted the Rick-sized space on the mattress by her left hip and Alexis obeyed, shifting closer until they were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder. Rick moved to the end of the bed, and Alexis caught him staring at the three of them on the bed with an awestruck lopsided grin, not concentrating on where he was pointing the camera – although somehow he was aiming it just about the right way.

“Okay, just hold your arm up a bit, and I’ll lay her on top.” They shuffled a bit, Kate setting Grace into the cradle of Alexis’ left arm. “You need to support her head, and…” Alexis brought her right hand around to keep a gentle hold on the baby and Kate slid her hands out of the way. “There you go!”

Alexis gazed down at the hours old baby in awe for a moment before looking up to her – their – dad. A radiant smile began to spread over her face as he spoke, “You’re holding your sister, Pumpkin! You got her, she’s safe.”

Unable to bear not looking at her, Alexis went back to staring at Grace. She took in the beautiful eyelashes and the perfectly-formed ears, and there was an involuntary squeak when she saw the tiny fingernails as she placed her finger in the middle of Grace’s palm, the baby curling her fingers around it in her sleep.

“I can barely believe she’s here,” Alexis whispered, not wanting to break the reverent silence that had fallen. “She’s so small.”

“You were that small too once, I’ve seen pictures.” Kate had leant her chin onto Alexis’ shoulder to watch Grace as she whispered to her, and Alexis completely understood why – she couldn’t break her gaze from her sister either. It was as if there was far too much to miss out on if she looked away.

Grace squirmed a little in her arms, and Alexis’ eyes widened in surprise. “She’s a good wriggler!” The others laughed and Alexis watched Grace yawn, making it seem like her wide open mouth was as big as the rest of her face. The lip-smacking after made Alexis grin but when her sister opened her eyes, Alexis’ breath caught in her throat. 

“Hey Grace… how you doing? I’m your big sister. We’re going to have such a great time, I’m gonna babysit for you, and play games with you, and help your mom teach you how to throw a ball and play catch – and then we’ll all try to teach Dad too – and we’ll ride our bikes around the park near the loft on sunny days, and kick through piles of leaves in the Fall, and dress up to go see all the Disney movies on opening night, and so many other cool things. Does that sound good to you?” 

Grace’s grip tightened around Alexis’ finger and she squirmed again.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> So this is what the interludes to the larger parts of the story will mostly look like! Next up will be **Σκύλος – Skýlos – Dog** and, yes, it is a self-explanatory title.


End file.
